writing journey

writing journey

The Power of Words: A Writing Journey

1. Discovering the Writer Within

The new writer has to take a number of steps in discovering the writer within. First, there must be a realization that writing is a process that leads to a product. Next, the new writer must look at writing as a gift and not a chore, realizing the potential that writing has in aiding personal expression and fulfillment. This often leads to an exploration of the self in which the new writer begins to learn about what he is and what he can become through writing. This search for self-knowledge encourages development and change. Finally, the discovery of a personal philosophy that writing is a means of engaging the world and the self can lead the writer to transform himself from an amateur into a professional. Each of these steps occurs at different times in different amounts for each writer, yet for many, they can lead to an experience where the writer feels that he has tapped into an inner voice or spirit as he produces writing that is genuine and inspired.

2. Crafting Compelling Narratives

The Timeline Flashback sequences can be confusing and/or annoying to the reader if not done properly. They can often distract the reader from the meat of the story and may cause the reader to forget what the characters are currently doing. This detracts from the flow of the narrative. Delmarmol separates the flashbacks with a concrete italic, not being too cryptic with it, and all the flashbacks are derived essentially from a memory from that day when the phone call took place.

Introduction Compelling narratives can be broken down into several elements. Charles Delmarmol’s “Steve” provides a good base to show how a narrative is constructed by breaking down the elements. The story essentially tells of a man called Steve who one day receives a mystery phone call informing him that his father has died. The person on the other end of the phone says they have many things to tell Steve, but after being asked about the circumstances of his father’s death, the line goes dead. Steve becomes increasingly haunted by his father’s death and begins to delve further into the mystery behind it. Delmarmol deconstructs the story into the main timeline, essentially creating a past, present, and future timeline taking the form of flashbacks, current dialogues, and thought processes and dreams telling what happened to his father. This ultimately leads to the conflict and eventually a foreshadowing ending to a sequel. In addition to the timeline, I will address the portrayal of the character throughout the story, how setting is used to determine the mood of a scene, and the emotive language that sparks hooks or cliffhangers to keep a reader engaged.

3. Mastering the Art of Persuasion

When you convince others into accepting your opinion as truth, it will make you more proud knowing that you have shaped someone into believing what you have desired. This creates a self-satisfying feeling in you. For others, it makes your writing more meaningful and well worth reading. When writing a persuasive essay or writings in debate style, you will want to work your beliefs into a conclusion stating that the reader should accept your opinion into his beliefs. This makes the writing more inviting and it urges the reader to accept your opinion into his beliefs that were persuaded to change.

To begin writing a persuasive essay, you should first know what you want to persuade others to accept into your belief. You will support your argument with facts, statistics, and explanations. To build your persuasion, you will write about beliefs and opinions on the subject. Your goal is to convince your audience to believe in your given viewpoint. Create a list of your issues and opinions about the subject.

In this segment, the task will be to show how you can present your viewpoints and to argue your readers to accept your opinions and ideas. It teaches the user how to become a better persuasive writer. It will guide you through the writing process to make your work more convincing.

4. Polishing Your Prose: Editing and Revision

Revision techniques are highly personal and often depend on the individual writer and the specific project. Some people revise best on printouts, others on the computer screen. Some work best during the day, others at night. The more you write and revise, the more you will get to know how you work best. Nevertheless there are some common methods and practical tips that almost every writer will find useful. So next are some practical steps that generally provide good results. Remember also that good revision is a continuous process, and it is worthwhile—and will save time in the long run—repeating these steps several times.

Effective revising is not simply cleaning up surface errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation, although that is certainly a part of the revision process. Nor is it simply recopying what you have written, although that can be a useful activity in the early stages of revision to help you get a sense of your overall work. Revision involves much more and demands an examination of your paragraphs, your sentences, and even your choice of individual words. Do not be fooled into thinking that revision means nothing more than minor tweaking. Correcting things at the sentence level is certainly part of revision, but you might also discover that you need to move entire paragraphs or delete entire sections. In the worst cases, you might realize that you have to scrap the entire first draft and start from scratch. It is not revision in the strictest sense, but it is still a necessary and productive step towards producing your finished work. Coming to terms with major reworking can be tough, but it can help to think again of your writing process as one comprising several stages, some much more important than others.

Once you have completed your first draft, the real work of composition begins. Because good writing is essentially rewriting, you will be spending much more time revising what you have written than you did creating the initial draft. If you have managed your time well, you will have sufficient space between drafting and revision to approach the prose objectively—and this is crucial for effective revision. Good writers are often surprised at how much their writing changes during the revision process—and how much it does not. The point is to be sure that your prose is saying precisely what you want and in the most effective way possible. This takes hard work, but it can be satisfying to see your writing improve.

5. Sharing Your Story with the World

Having your own website is definitely a huge plus when it comes to sharing your story with the world. You have more freedom to write about what you want, how you want, and it’s easier to gain a wider audience. This transition might be a little scary, especially if you don’t know any web design, but as I mentioned there are plenty of communities on the internet with people willing to share info and resources. If you stick with it and maintain a social media presence, there’s nowhere to go from here but up.

If you don’t want to spend a lot of time writing short quips or temporarily hijacking popular hashtags, the next best bet is to work on SEO so that your writing will come up as a top result. This one is much easier said than done and typically can’t be done through a free blogging platform, so it may be worth looking into getting your own website.

The first step used to involve guest blogging on popular sites, or people would advertise their posts in communities such as Digg or Reddit. While these methods are still valid, they are not as effective as the great social media takeover. The ultimate goal is to build up a social media platform for your writing, be it through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or something else. This method is not time efficient (and making your pages look pretty can be frustrating if you’re not graphically inclined) but if you post something with a catchy phrase and a great link, and everyone else who sees it likes and shares, it will travel like wildfire.

If you’re ready to share your story with the world, there is really no better time than now. The internet has made it increasingly easier to connect with communities from all over the world. No more “blogger burnout” from trying to promote your posts to disinterested social networks. Forget having your written work buried underneath an avalanche of shallow celebrity news and gossip. With a little bit of careful planning and thought, you can attract new readers who are genuinely interested in what you have to say.